I don’t like many of the protein bars on sale, which is a shame because they’re a convenient way to get extra meals in and keep your metabolism nice and high. There is quite a nice alternative however, at least for anyone without nut allergies! They’re pretty high in calories which is great as a post workout snack when you’re trying to gain muscle, especially since it has a nice combination of high and low GI carbs with a sizable bit of protein. They’re pretty quick to make and keep well for quite a while.

Ingredients:

1 jar of peanut butter, crunchy or smooth depending on taste

1 cup of oats

1 cup of whey protein, i used vanilla but plain works just as well

1 handful of mixed nuts

1 handful of dates

2 tablespoons of set honey

First of all I mix the peanut butter and honey in a microwaveable bowl, then heat for 45 seconds, stir and heat for another 45 seconds. This should produce a nice runny mixture in the bowl.

Next drop the dates and nuts into a blender until there are no big lumps left, and mix into the peanut butter, being careful not to burn yourself if it’s still hot. Finally add the whey protein and oats, and mix until everything is blended. I found this much easier when I stopped trying to do it with a wooden spoon and used my hands to kneed the mixture. The mixture will then hopefully be of a dough like consistency, neither dry nor runny.

Finally, add the mixture into containers. I like to use the plastic ones from old Chinese takeaways but any flat bottom container will do. Put this into a fridge and chill overnight. Once chilled, cut into slices and wrap in either cling film or tin foil and store in the fridge.

Here’s a couple left over from the last batch I made.

If you want you can use a mix of whey proteins, I like to mix fast absorbing whey protein with Micellar Casein protein, combined with the slow and fast carbs from the dates and the oats it gives both an initial insulin boost with plenty of fast protein plus a longer lasting effect. This is great for recovering from a workout as the insulin spike should help get valuable nutrients back into your muscles to help repair them. I get my protein from myprotein.co.uk I find them to be great quality and really good value, they even run a pricematch comparison so if you can beat their prices they’ll match it. If you want to order from them, use the code MP10349 for a 5% discount and I’ll get a little off my future orders, so everybody’s a winner!

9 June, 2007

My reading lately has been of the post apocalyptic genre, partly because it’s a genre which provides more room for speculation than most science fiction.

I recently finished I Am Legend by Richard Matheson recently, a post apocalyptic vampire novel written in 1954. It was a fantastic piece of writing, and understandably a classic piece of horror writing. At several points in the book I had to stop reading and take a breather just because of the impact of some of it. I really wanted to get it finished before the film comes out so it wont affect how I imagine it.

Now I’m working my way through the unabridged version of Stephen King’s The Stand, written in 1978 and a monster at over 1400 pages. I’m over 400 pages in and the apocalypse itself is only just finishing! I’ve seen it called a masterpiece several times so I’m anticipating a good finish, although at the moment it still feels like he’s mostly just introducing the characters.

When I eventually get through that I have Mockingbird by Walter Trevis, written in 1980. Again I’ve heard good things about it, and although the newest of the three it’s still older than me, just. Walter Trevis also wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth, which was turned into the filmof the same name starring David Bowie. It was nominated for a Nebula award so I’m hoping it should be an enjoyable read.

Reading these different versions of a great tragedy befalling our race is interesting, more so because the majority of the time it’s attributed to ourselves in some way. I’ve yet to see a story in which we aren’t to blame for our own downfall in some way, however small. Maybe we think we have so much control as a race that any downfall would have to be our fault in some way? Perhaps it just makes the story more interesting, it’s the old pride before a fall adage inflicted on us as a race, to show us how helpless we would become accustomed to the luxury civilization affords us.

8 June, 2007

I always loved steampunk imagery, even before I really knew what it was. Wood, cogs, steam rivets, brass pistons and clockwork mixed up in a fusion of Victorian and modern style to create some lovely concepts. I’ve been sourcing some steampunk imagery for another project, details of which I’ll hopefully get to blog about once it’s up and running. Since I’ve spent so long googling for what I felt fits the genre it would be a waste not to post up some of my favourites. To most people this will probably just look like a collection of random images!

7 June, 2007

At the end of last march I did a 1RM lift day, basically just to find out what the maximum weight I could lift for the big 3 lifts was. The results at the end of march were:

Bench Press – 100 Kg

Squat – 142.5 Kg

Deadlift – 180 Kg

I was very happy with these results, but at the end of July I’ll be doing it all over again to see how much I’ve managed to improve. I’m hoping for:

Bench Press – 112 Kg

Squat – 160 Kg

Deadlift – 200 Kg

I’m not aiming too high because unfortunately my diet is focused on fat loss at the moment, which means diminished gains in the strength department. To limit this I’m going to be keeping my set/reps low to keep as much strength as possible. I usually do a 5×5 scheme, but since this is starting to plateau I’m going to start alternating between a 5×3 and a 3×5 scheme. I’m avoiding 3×3 since the overall volume proved to be too low for me in the past.

Hopefully I can lose at least 5 Kg by the end of July, putting me at about 85kg. This works out at a little over half a kilo a week, which should be fairly attainable. As I’m concentrating on fat loss my calories have been cut, mostly from my carbohydrate intake. This has worked well for me in the past so I’ll be limiting my intake to whatever I get from vegetables. My protein and fat intake is still kept fairly high, and I’m keeping an eye on calorie intake for once. It’s been recommended to me before, but I’m starting a fitday record to keep track of things. All my protein is going to come from whole meat sources and eggs, and I’ll be getting an equal split of fats. To supplement it I’m taking a nice multivitamin and 2 or 3 fish oil caps with each meal.

If I have the energy for it I’ll add in some sprint interval work and maybe even some steady state cardio, but that’d not a definite at this stage.